Tag Archives: Atheism

So the other day I was introduced to That Mitchell and Webb Look through the (science/atheistic) website Pharyngula, with this Mitchell and Webb skit about homeopathy, a subject of particular derision in the skeptic crowd.

So I tracked down that show, and that particular episode and I found this sketch that would be right up the same alley…

The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Imagine No Religion” billboards have gone up in a few places around the Phoenix. One of them is near Indian School and 23rd Street – which I happen to drive past each and every day – and had never seen it. My friend, John, and I were even in the area a couple times for lunch and didn’t see it.

We saw every other billboard in the area, but not that one. We were beginning to suspect that the whole controversy was a clever ploy to get atheists to pay more attention to billboard advertising.

Finally, however, this week we went searching until we found it. (See John here doing his very best Jimmy Olsen imitation with the camera.)

This morning, quite by accident on my way back from a meeting down at the State Capital, I passed another on 19th Ave, near the I-10.

When you’re looking for one, you can’t find one. When you don’t need one, they’re everywhere.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned I dislike Easter. It’s literally the worst day of the year. Why? Oh, it’s not so much the Jesus freaks, it’s the fact that most business shut down on behalf of the Jesus freaks. And it’s the fact that it’s usually a glorious day in Arizona. It’s not the kind of day where you want to stay at home and have a quiet day at home.

We decided to take the kids out geocaching on the north side of the Phoenix Mountain Parks. At least the city parks aren’t closed, and try though they might with their depressing tales of torture and murder, they can’t take the beauty out of a spring morning.

We’d never been to this area before and parking is sparse around there, no doubt because the rich folks who live on that part of the park’s perimeter don’t want riff-raff like us parking in their neighborhoods. Too bad for them.

Miffed as I generally am on Easter day, my mind tends to ponder the sheep-like devotion to a fiction, and so I’m turning these issues over in my head, probably more than I normally would, as we came over a saddle between two hills and it was one of those surprise moments you sometimes get in the Phoenix Mountain parks: a valley, surrounded by hills, with not the slightest trace of the city skyline visible anywhere. Apart from the footpaths cris-crossing the valley floor, I could have been looking at how it was 200 years ago, or even 2000 years ago. (I’m afraid my knowledge of the geology of the Phoenix area is remarkably lacking, but I don’t think the hills are younger than that.)

Some people don’t see the beauty in the desert. Some people, like me, are born here, have lived outside the cities and feel an affinity with it – it has the pull of home. Others come here and immediately see it. Most take time to appreciate it. Others, still, never do.

The sky was cloudless and blue. Beautiful, as long as you recognize it’s letting all that sunlight burn you alive.

The hills and rocks that are so pernicious to walk over, at a distance stand, almost defiant and mighty. They’re not big, but they make up for it in determination.

The earth is mostly desert brown, even the shrub brush are sparse enough and dull enough in color that it makes everything look that desert color, which at first glance is dull, but as you look more, it just makes the colors even more alive. On this spring morning, the hills were covered with yellow-flowering plants. Tiny little things, but in their millions, visible across the valley.

Not as obvious, because they are even smaller, little purple flowers dot along the trails.

Looking at these things is as close as I ever get to a “religious” experience. What an amazing world we live in. What a beautiful, diverse world that, even though I’ve lived in Phoenix 26 years, I can still walk over a hill and see something this beautiful that I’ve never seen before. How sad that, in our lifespan, none of us will ever walk over every hill and see every wonder this planet has to offer.

And then there’s the universe – that mindless, mind-bogglingly vast frontier. What wonders await us out there?

Ten minutes later, I ran across two nuns, sitting on the side of one of the hills, looking out over the same scenery I was looking at, no doubt contemplating the wonder of their god for providing for them.

Eminent scientist Richard Dawkins was in Tempe tonight, and it was quite a surprise for me. I knew that Dawkins had been making book tours through the US, and I knew that he had even made concerted forays into the southern bible belt, but I thought even Dawkins would have to turn tail and run from the pig-ignorant savages that dominate certain sectors of the great state of Arizona.

In other words, it just never occurred to me that he would ever come here. Monday I learned that I was wrong – not only was he coming to the US for a new tour, but that he’d be starting at ASU, my old Alma Mater. My excitement was quickly crushed when, not 10 minutes after learning he was coming, I also learned that the show was “sold out” – which is only euphemistic, since the tickets were free. Luckily, with just a slight bit of whinging on RichardDawkins.net, a kind stranger gave me two tickets that he had but was going to be unable to use.

Like most everyone else that frequents the RDF website, I’ve heard (and read) what Dawkins has to say. In addition to wanting to show my support for “the cause” (as it were) I also wanted to see the extemporaneous side of Dawkins. Would his presentation be a crafted and methodical lecture, or would it be more free-form? Dawkins is (in my opinion) at his best when he’s answering questions.

To answer that question: His talk was well-honed and planned, which is a bit of a disappointment because, for the large part, it is just a recap of his book, the God Delusion. However, some parts of the lecture concerned response to the hardcover edition, and allowed him to rebut some of his critics, and to further clarify some central ideas to the book. Basically, I won’t recount the speech, just buy his book.

I’m not sure if Dawkins was just playing the audience, but as he came out he stated this was the biggest audience he’d ever addressed. I’m not sure how big Grady Gammage Auditorium really is, but it was about 90-95% full – and this in Arizona! I was shocked and more than a little proud.

The audience, as a whole, looked a bit like a casting call for eccentric university professors, complete with tweed jackets with patches on the elbows. The age of the audience was probably in the upper 40s, on average, although there was a fair-sized contingent of college-aged people.

The Beyond Center, which sponsored the event, thoughtfully provided real-time close-captioning for the hard of hearing. The person doing the typing was amazing, but, unfortunately, from time to time he/she was either unable to keep up with Dawkins, unable to understand what he said, or just plain missed or paraphrased what he was saying. This resulted in a few unintentional laughs throughout Dawkins’ presentation at inappropriate times. I can’t help wondering if he knew why the audience was laughing. (Example: At one point he mentioned his wife, Lala. There was an unusually long delay before the words “Law Law” were written out on the screen. I didn’t notice if, when he mentioned PZ Myers at Pharnygula if it was spelled “Myers” or “Meyers”.)

Even though I had no need of the subtitles, it was almost impossible not to watch them during the show.

After the presentation, there was a Q&A. The questions were fairly typical. One person asked if perhaps it was better to approach converting people out of their religion by non-confrontational means. Dawkins responded that is not know as his long suit, but that others are good at that and that he hopes that his lectures and book help other atheists and agnostics and if they can, as he said, “seduce” them, that’s all good.

Another fellow rambled incoherently about how perhaps rather than use the Celestial Teapot analogy, he should use one that is patently impossible, as a teapot is in theory more possible than god. He suggested using a triangle with three 90Âº angles as a more appropriate analogy. Dawkins kindly took that as a comment and not something that needed a response to.

A doctor who specialized in cancer brought up points about religion being something that provides comfort for his terminal patients. He wanted to know if Dawkins felt that “happiness” ever should trump “the truth.” Dawkins responded with an emphatic, “no.” (Although he did say, in the case of someone on their death bed, he’d change the subject or something rather than debunk their delusion.

Another audience member, from India, I should based on accent, appearance and question, asked about why Dawkins doesn’t address Hinduism and what he thought of that, and also Chinese religion. I thought the answer a little weak, basically, “Well, I don’t know anything about Hinduism, except that it is polytheistic and based on supernatural things. That’s why I restrict my book to the three Abrahamic religions.” He also showed an astounding lack of understanding of Chinese religion, confusing the typical Buddhism for Confucianism. He did mention that he was very interested in having a Hindu challenge the UK’s charitable laws which requires you to recognize “one” god only.

Finally, I mentioned that the audience looked like it was dressed for a college professor-themed party. That wasn’t entirely true, there were a few very well dressed individuals – it would appear they were the bible thumper crowd. Based on the applause for their one question, there were 8 of them. His question was… you say religion leads to war, but it doesn’t, blah blah. It was rather incoherent and he put on his best duds for it, too. Dawkins simply reiterated that atheism doesn’t have a logical pathway to violence. That is, there’s no tenet of atheism that demands certain course of action, whereas religion, if truly believed, has many direct, logical paths to violence – if you really believe.

Overall, it was an enjoyable couple of hours, and I was really pleased as how large the crowd was.

Update 3-8-2008

A couple other blogs have also posted some thoughts on Dawkins’ talk the other night: